Canadian director Justin McConnell has created a self-indulgent selfie-fest – I’d pass on his fantasy horror too
Justin McConnell is a Canadian indie director who has here created what amounts to a tiring and self-indulgent video diary of the last five years as he tries to get his passion project made (a fantasy horror called Lifechanger). It is interspersed with what feels like hundreds of thousands of interviews with beaming film people, some very famous (such as Paul Schrader and Guillermo Del Toro), some not so famous, but all giving us their well-meant platitudes about getting your films made by following your dream and realising that it’s all about storytelling.
Clapboard Jungle suffers from a weird mix of information overload and a lack of actual, usable information that might be of assistance to film-makers or of interest to film audiences. To an extraordinary degree, this film is packed with endless selfie shots of McConnell’s face as – zonked with stress or anxiety or disappointment – he trudges through airport department lounges on his way to festivals, placidly listens to
music on a bus, or takes calls from producers and distributors passing on his project.